CHAPTER III.

THE INJUNCTIONS AND ADVERTISEMENTS.

INJUNCTIONS OF EDWARD VI.

Injunctions given by the most excellent prince, Edward VI., by the grace of God king of England, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, and in earth, under Christ, of the church of England and of Ireland the supreme head. To all and singular his loving subjects, as well of the clergy as of the laity.-(Bodl. Douce, BB. 218.)

HE king's most royal majesty, by the advice of his most dear uncle the duke of Somerset, lord protector of all his realms, dominions, and subjects, and governor of his most royal person, and the residue of his most honourable council, intending the advancement of the true honour of Almighty God, the suppression of idolatry and superstition throughout all his realms and dominions, and to plant true religion, to the extirpation of all hypocrisy, enormities, and abuses, as to his duty appertaineth; doth minister unto his loving subjects these godly injunctions hereafter following; whereof part were given unto them heretofore, by authority of his most dearly beloved father, King Henry VIII., of most famous memory, and part are now ministered and given by his majesty all which injunctions his highness willeth and commandeth his said loving subjects, by his supreme authority, obediently to receive, and truly to observe and keep, every man in their offices, degrees, and states, as they will avoid his displeasure, and the pains in the same injunctions hereafter expressed.

1. The first is, that all deans, archdeacons, parsons, vicars, and other ecclesiastical persons, shall faithfully keep and observe, and as far as in them may lie, shall cause to be observed and kept of

other, all and singular laws and statutes, made as well for the abolishing and extirpation of the bishop of Rome his pretensed and usurped power and jurisdiction, as for the establishment and confirmation of the king's authority, jurisdiction, and supremacy of the church of England and Ireland. And furthermore, all ecclesiastical persons, having cure of soul, shall, to the uttermost of their wit, knowledge, and learning, purely, sincerely, and without any colour or dissimulation, declare, manifest and open four times every year at the least, in their sermons and other collations, that the Bishop of Rome's usurped power and jurisdiction, having no establishment nor ground by the laws of God, was of most just causes taken away and abolished; and that therefore no manner of obedience or subjection, within his realms and dominions, is due unto him. And that the king's power, within his realms and dominions, is the highest power under God, to whom all men, within the same realms and dominions, by God's laws, owe most loyalty and obedience, afore and above all other powers and potentates in earth.

Besides this, to the intent that all superstition and hypocrisy crept into divers men's hearts, may vanish away; they shall not set forth or extol any images, relics, or miracles, for any superstition or lucre, nor allure the people by any enticements to the pilgrimage of any saint or image: but reproving the same, they shall teach, that all goodness, health, and grace, ought to be both asked and looked for only of God, as of the very author and giver of the same, and of none other.

2. Item, That they the persons above rehearsed, shall make or cause to be made in their churches, and every other cure they have, one sermon every quarter of the year at the least, wherein they shall purely and sincerely declare the Word of God: and in the same, exhort their hearers to the works of faith, mercy and charity, specially prescribed and commanded in scripture; and that works devised by men's fantasies, besides scripture, as wandering to pilgrimages, offering of money, candles, or tables, to relics, or images, or kissing and licking of the same, praying upon beads, or such like superstition, have not only no promise of reward in scripture for doing of them, but contrariwise, great threats, and maledictions of God, for that they be things tending to idolatry and superstition, which of all other offences God Almighty doth most detest and abhor, for that the same diminish most his honour and glory.

3. Item, That such images as they know in any of their cures to

be or have been so abused with pilgrimage or offerings of any thing made thereunto, or shall be hereafter censed unto, they (and none other private persons) shall for the avoiding of that most detestable offence of idolatry, forthwith take down, or cause to be taken down and destroy the same; and shall suffer from henceforth no torches nor candles, tapers or images of wax to be set afore any image or picture, but only two lights upon the high altar, before the sacrament, which for the signification that Christ is the very true light of the world, they shall suffer to remain still; admonishing their parishioners, that images serve for no other purpose but to be a remembrance, whereby men may be admonished of the holy lives and conversation of them that the said images do represent; which images if they do abuse for any other intent, they commit idolatry in the same, to the great danger of their souls.

4. Item, That every holy-day throughout the year, when they have no sermon, they shall immediately after the Gospel, openly and plainly recite to their parishioners in the pulpit, the "Pater noster," the "Credo," and the Ten Commandments in English, to the intent the people may learn the same by heart; exhorting all parents and householders to teach their children and servants the same, as they are bound by the law of God, and in conscience to do.

5. Item, That they shall charge fathers and mothers, masters and governors, to bestow their children and servants, even from their childhood, either to learning or to some honest exercise, occupation, or husbandry; exhorting and counselling, and by all the ways and means they may, as well in their sermons and collations, as otherwise, persuading their said fathers and mothers, masters and other governors, diligently to provide and foresee that the youth be in no manner of wise brought up in idleness, lest at any time afterward for lack of some craft, occupation, or other honest means to live by, they be driven to fall to begging, stealing, or some other unthriftiness; forasmuch as we may daily see, through sloth and idleness, divers valiant men fall, some to begging, and some to theft and murder; which after brought to calamity and misery, do blame their parents, friends, and governors, which suffered them to be brought up so idly in their youth, where if they had been well brought up in learning some good occupation or craft, they would (being rulers of their own household) have profited as well themselves, as divers other persons, to the great commodity and ornament of the commonwealth.

6. Also, That the said parsons, vicars, and other curates shall diligently provide, that the sacraments be duly and reverently ministered in their parishes. And if at any time it happen them in any of the cases expressed in the statutes of this realm, or of special license given by the king's majesty, to be absent from their benefices, they shall leave their cure not to a rude and unlearned person, but to an honest, well learned, and expert curate, that can by his ability teach the rude and unlearned of their cure wholesome doctrine, and reduce them to the right way that do err; which will also execute these injunctions, and do their duty otherwise, as they are bound to do in every behalf, and accordingly may and will profit their cure no less with good example of living, than with the declaration of the Word of God, or else their lack and default shall be imputed unto them, who shall straitly answer for the same if they do otherwise. And always let them see, that neither they nor their curates do seek more their own profit, promotion, or advantage, than the profit of the souls that they have under their cure, or the glory of God.

The

parson or

7. Also, That they shall provide within three months next after this visitation, one book of the whole Bible, of the largest volume in English. And within one twelve months next after the said visitation, the "Paraphrasis" of Erasmus also in English upon the Gospels, and the same set up in some convenient place within the said church that they have cure of, whereas their parishioners may most commodiously resort unto the same, and read the same. charges of which books shall be rateably borne between the approprietary, and the parishioners aforesaid, that is to say, the one half by the parson or proprietary, and the other half by the parishioners. And they shall discourage no man (authorized and licensed thereto) from the reading of any part of the Bible, either in Latin or in English; but shall rather conform and exhort every person to read the same, as the very lively Word of God, and the special food of man's soul, that all Christian persons are bound to embrace, believe, and follow, if they look to be saved: whereby they may the better know their duties to God, to their sovereign lord the king, and their neighbour; ever gently and charitably exhorting them, and in his majesty's name straitly charging and commanding them, that in the reading thereof, no man to reason or contend, but quietly to hear the reader.

8. Also, The said ecclesiastical persons shall in no wise, at any unlawful time, nor for any other cause than for their honest

necessity, haunt or resort to any taverns or alehouses. And after their dinner and supper, they shall not give themselves to drinking or riot, spending their time idly, by day or by night, at dice, cards, or tables-playing, or any other unlawful game; but at all times (as they shall have leisure) they shall hear and read somewhat of holy scripture, or shall occupy themselves with some other honest exercise; and that they always do the things which appertain to honesty, with endeavour to profit the commonweal; having always in mind, that they ought to excel all other in purity of life, and should be example to the people to live well and Christianly.

9. Item, That they shall in confessions every Lent examine every person that cometh to confession to them, whether they can recite the articles of their faith, the "Pater noster," and the Ten Commandments in English, and hear them say the same particularly; wherein if they be not perfect, they shall declare then, that every Christian person ought to know the said things before they should receive the blessed Sacrament of the altar, and monish them to learn the said necessary things more perfectly, or else they ought not to presume to come to God's board, without perfect knowledge and will to observe the same; and if they do, it is to the great peril of their souls, and also to the worldly rebuke, that they might incur hereafter by the same.

10. Also, That they shall admit no man to preach within any their cures, but such as shall appear unto them to be sufficiently licensed thereunto, by the king's majesty, the lord protector's grace, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York in his province, or the bishop of the diocess; and such as shall be so licensed, they shall gladly receive to declare the Word of God, without any resistance or contradiction.

11. Also, If they have heretofore declared to their parishioners any thing to the extolling or setting forth of pilgrimages, relics, or images, or lighting of candles, kissing, kneeling, decking of the same images, or any such superstition, they shall now openly,before the same, recant, and reprove the same; showing them (as the truth is) that they did the same upon no ground of scripture, but were led and seduced by a common error and abuse, crept into the Church through the sufferance and avarice of such as felt profit by the same.

12. Also, If they do, or shall know any man within their parish or elsewhere, that is a letter of the Word of God to be read in English, or sincerely preached, or of the execution of these the